The present invention relates to the field of digital media content and, more particularly, to transferring an ownership right to a copy of a copyrighted work from a physical object to digital media.
Sales of digital only media have been geometrically expanding, marking a shift from traditional physical media sales. Historically, sales of media content occurred in a form bound to a physical media (e.g., book, cassette tape, CD, DVD, etc.). Consequently, a marketplace in which physically bound media was sold focused upon exchanges of tangible objects in which media was embodied. This is no longer the case, as purchases of digital only content are on the rise with the widespread market penetration of e-commerce storefronts such as ITUNES, AMAZON, NETFLIX, and the like.
Digital only media sales have numerous economic, technical, and legal ramifications. Economically, sales of digital only content lowers production, distribution, and warehouse costs. It also speeds time to market. Further, impulse buys and direct advertising are easier for digital only media than for their physically bound counterparts. Negatively, there is an increased concern with digital media proliferation through piracy or other non-sanctioned means.
From a technology end, both good and bad ramifications exist for digital only media. In theory, digital only media never degrades and can retain its original fidelity and utility indefinitely. Digital only media can be moved and/or utilized on any of a variety of devices, which may require format conversions. Digital only media can also be copied and shared—this is a strong concern from a provider's perspective. Digital rights management (DRM) techniques are often implemented to prevent unauthorized sharing and uses.
To date, many problems have resulted from DRM. For example, one DRM measure requires digital only media to periodically communicate with a license server, else the digital only media becomes non-useful. Many significant players in this arena (e.g., MSN MUSIC, YAHOO! MUSIC STORE, FICTIONWISE/OVERDRIVE) have shifted their business model, which have caused them to shut down their DRM servers. Thus, previously purchased digital only content becomes obsolete, as it cannot be used without the existence of the DRM servers. Hardware (i.e., the original ZUNE that lacked “PlaysForSure” support) can become obsolete when DRM schemes for playing digital content change, leaving consumers with expensive and non-useful hardware. Further, a lack of uniformity with DRM has resulted in incompatibilities among popular playback devices—most notably purchased digital only media from some sources are not able to be played on an IPOD, IPHONE, or ITOUCH, which are presently among the most popular products in the market for digital content playback.
From a legal perspective, the predominant form of legal protection for digital only content is copyright law, which is often supplemented by contract law (e.g., shrink-wrap and/or click-wrap licenses). Under defaults of copyright law, a sale of digital only media legally permits a single concurrent use of the media. Thus, the axiom exists that legally, digital only media can be treated like a book. This perspective, which is largely what consumers expect from their purchase regardless of what legal rights they actually receive, would permit digital only content to be loaned to others, to be used in different locations, to be used on different devices, and the like. Deviations from this legal baseline (based on copyright law) enacted through contract law face problems, unless consumers are fully aware of their legal rights—else no true “bargained for exchange” has occurred, which is required by contract law.